After finally using my color chemicals to do regular C-41 (print film) developing earlier this month I decided to go one step further and develop a roll of slide film in the same chemicals for the cross-processing effect.

Popular with hipsters in the Lomo movement, non-film geeks are probably familiar with the look from Tony Scott films (most notably "Domino" and "Man on Fire"), some Oliver Stone and numerous music videos. It turns regular colors into some day glo, high contrast universe. Reds turn neon red, blacks are very black, everything else is unpredictable.

The way to do it is to cross-process one film type with chemistry meant for another. If you have slide film, you process with print chemistry. Or print film with slide chemistry (E-6). Since I have only C-41 print chemistry I had to shoot a roll of slide film and process it.

Initially, I had a question about whether I could process the roll of print film that I wanted to develop in the same tank to save effort. I wondered if the development would be somehow screwed up for either the print or negative roll, or if it would harm or degrade the chemicals since I pour them back into their bottles for later.

It turns out there is some disagreement over whether it does harm the chemistry. Some professional labs won't cross-process for fear that it does harm the large volume of chemicals they use for all their runs. Others say that it has negligible effect. Certainly, for my home development volumes, it shouldn't matter. My regular C-41 roll appeared to be unaffected by being processed with the slide film.

This was a roll of Sensia 200. I can't say that the look is all that appealing to me. Pee-green reminds me of the stuff that I've been coughing up the whole of June due to a persistent throat cold. You probably didn't want to know about that.

I'll probably try this again with another brand of slide film and apparently Kodak films have a different tone. I do like the contrast.